Myra Rose is a comic artist and Illustrator located in Upstate New York, sharing her apartment with 2 cats and 2 snakes. She attended Laguna College of Art and Design, majoring in animation but dabbling in other majors, eventually realizing her love of storytelling and comics. Having worked on comic covers for Boom! Studios, she is excited to release her debut graphic novel Lovely Recipe with Random House Graphic. When she’s not drawing, you can find her knitting, spinning, crocheting, weaving or attempting to make sourdough bread.

I had the opportunity to interview Myra, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thanks so much for having me! I’m Myra, an artist born and raised in upstate New York, living with my 2 cats and 2 snakes! I went to school in Southern California to study animation and become an animator but I ended up falling in love with Storyboarding. I soon came to realize it wasn’t storyboarding that I loved but the art of storytelling. I think that’s when I really started to shift into comics and dream of working on my own projects!

What can you tell us about your project, Lovely Recipe? What was the inspiration for the series?

I wanted to explore multiple themes but most importantly create something inspired by my family, themes of young love, processing grief and navigating the transition out of high school.

More importantly, this book was inspired by my great grandma, my Grammy who passed away right before I started college. We had a conversation where we talked about easter bread and how she said putting the sprinkles on was annoying and she preferred making them without which I disagreed with. She ended up getting sick but even through that she still managed to make me an entire plate of easter bread cookies for my graduation party that she couldn’t attend. I just remember seeing the platter and all the cookies covered in sprinkles, and being so excited because I was actually scared she wouldn’t put them on. After that, at her funeral, when my great uncle was speaking, he said how “If you ever doubted Grammy’s love for you, just know if she ever baked or cooked for you that was her way of showing her love.” And that stuck with me for years. When I was offered the opportunity to pitch to Random House I really struggled with deciding on what sort of story I wanted to tell, especially something as important as the first book. Because I had moved back home, I was come face to face with a lot of memories and sentimental items I’d forgotten about and while I was washing one of my Grammy’s dishes in the sink, the idea shot into my head and I immediately started writing the idea down.

Also, before art school, I was planning on going to Culinary school and I thought it would be fun to explore my love of cooking and the path I didn’t end up picking through these characters!

As a creative, what drew you to the art of storytelling, especially graphic novels/comics?

I was one of those kids who would be imagining full cinematic stories on the bus ride home from school. It was such an escape for me especially when I started struggling in high school. I remember I would doodle these characters and kids in my class would ask me more about them, to the point where I started making little comics and sharing them with my family and friends, creating entire plots and stories, worlds. I think comics are a great way to explore your own personal emotions and feelings. Every comic idea I have is really me trying to understand something about myself. Like Lovely Recipe, I wanted to explore grief and how it can push people apart but also bring people together. A personal comic I drew years ago explored the loneliness of a long distance relationships, I have another story focusing on friendship and how difficult meeting new people and dating after college can be— Storytelling has always felt like the driving force behind most of my art and is what motivates me the most to draw!

How would you describe your creative process?

Controlled Chaos. I’d say my process is very different depending on what I’m working on. For comics, I try to create a schedule for myself but inspiration and good ideas tend to hit whenever they want so carrying a notebook, drawing tablet or sketchbook at all times is crucial for me. My phone notes are filled with insane un-identifiable scribbles. My workspace is organized but also messy so I always have the ability to grab my tools if and when inspiration strikes! I wish my creative process was more streamlined and routine, I think 2026 is the year I try to work on that. Ohh oh! Also! FIND A CUTE CAFE! When I need a refresh and maybe my home studio becomes too stuffy, getting a little cute coffee and a danish, sitting in a cafe and hearing random conversations, it’s magical how much that can help me when I’m feeling stuck.

What are some of your favorite elements of wriBng/illustraBng? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult?

Characters and character interaction. I don’t consider myself much of a character designer, but I do love coming up with a characters style! Especially if it’s something that really tells you more about who they are as a character. Personal style is something important to me so I try my best to reinforce it in my art. Drawing characters interacting is always fun too, especially if they’re not exactly on the same page about things. We love a quarreling pair! As for difficult or frustrating, I think writing can be the hardest part. Writing a story and knowing you can go in 50 different directions can be difficult and paralyzing, so having people to bounce ideas off of is so important. I’m grateful for my friends and family for always helping me come up with ideas.

As a creative, who or what would you say are some of your greatest artistic and creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general?

So, probably NOT a surprise I grew up watching a lot of anime and reading manga so I pull a great deal of inspiration from there— specifically the 80’s/90’s styles like Inuyasha (one of my all-time faves!) and Evangelion, Asumiko Nakamura, Syundei, Harada are some of my favorites as well and I referenced them a lot during my work on Lovely Recipe since their style really influenced my art especially during college. In terms of Western artists, Erich Sokol, Doug Sneyd and Kiraz are some of my favorites alongside Ronald Searle and EH Shepard. UPA anima8on, lots of Midcentury Illustrators! I have so many I love. I will say I took a great deal of inspiration for the backgrounds from Madeline’s European Adventures, that really loosey-goosey pixel painted style from a lot of those point and click games from the 2000’s. If you know, you know! When trying to find inspiration outside of other artists, I LOVE antiquing and finding unique pieces to decorate my studio and home that will continue to offer me inspiration whether it be the shapes, colours, design etc; They tickle the part of my brain that gives me all the good ideas haha.

Aside from your work, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

I do personally love cooking and going to culinary school was my life long dream until I realized how much I wanted to study art/animation. Whenever I’m really nervous about where my art career is going I always fantasize about having a restaurant or a cafe so I’d say I was living pretty vicariously through this book in being able to explore my own dreams a bit. I also always wanted to be a marine biologist and love Squids and Octopus so who knows maybe that’ll spark inspiration for my next work… I wouldn’t be opposed to it (o:

In my spare time I love to knit, crochet and spin yarn! I love thrifting/antiquing too, especially collecting weird 1950’s cookbooks & hunting for rare pyrex and vintage children’s picture books!

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

I think something along the lines “What is something you wish someone had told you before you started working on your comic?”

And the answer to that is overestimate deadlines. I have an already bad habit of thinking something is going to take me a lot less time than it will. If I think I need 1 week for something, then I should ask for 2— if I think it’s going to take me 2 hours to colour a page, schedule at least 4. I definitely bit off more than I could chew in terms of my deadlines, especially when you don’t account for personal things and life to get in the way I’m going to be a LOT more careful when it comes to scheduling projects in the future.

What advice might you have to give for aspiring storytellers/graphic novelists out there?

Know that inspiration strikes at random so always be open to things, big or small, inspiring your stories or helping you work out plot problems and character issues. Don’t discount an idea because it feels cheesy or it’s been done before, because we are all so unique and bring something different to the table. Also when working on big projects like a comic, make sure to take breaks and work on things for yourself when you can to avoid burn out!

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

Not at the moment. Lovely Recipe was a long project and I’d love the opportunity to work on another graphic novel in the future— I’ve definitely got ideas I just got to figure out which one I wanna work on the most! I do plan to revive an old webtoon comic I was working on because I just miss the characters so if you’re into best friends, dating and… crocodiles it might be something to take a look at!

Finally, what books/authors (LGBTQ+ or otherwise) would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t had as much time to look ahead to what’s coming but I’m extremely excited for Go For It Nakamura-Kun by Syundei getting a third volume and an anime soon! That and The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All. I own the untranslated volumes, I need to actually buy the English books so I can follow along properly!

Not a comic, but inspired by comics, I’m looking forward to Spiderverse 3 so much!!!